Richard V Collins III

He is survived by his sister Christine K Collins of Mount Arlington NJ, two sons John Collins of Ogdensburg NJ, Michael Collins of Newton NJ, and his daughter Amy and husband Michael Brand of Randolph NJ. Richard is also survived by his eight grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Richard was born on August 11th, 1947 in Rome New York to Richard and Katherine Collins (both predeceased). Having been born into a military family, they moved around often but his favorite place to have lived during this time was in Italy living about 45 minutes outside of Venice.

After graduating college from Fordham in 1969, he started working for Aetna. At the time he was living at the Westover Airforce base where he would meet his future wife Catherine Sue Britton (predeceased) having their first date playing tennis and going out for ice cream. They married on August 8th 1970 and would have three children, John Collins (Ogdensburg NJ), Michael Collins (Newton NJ), and his daughter Amy Brand (Randolph NJ). The young family lived in West Springfield MA until he was transferred by Aetna, his employer at the time, in August 1980, and would settle in Ogdensburg NJ where he would live until 2010 when he decided to then move to Randolph NJ. He was an active member of the Ogdensburg community during that time attending church every Sunday, coaching soccer, cheering on his kids in the different sports they played, game nights on the weekends with their friends, and he enjoyed playing on his guitar and cooking on the grill for his family.

Richard left Aetna after several years and would work at Einhorn Forlenza as Vice President until his retirement in 2012. At the same time, Richard worked closely with his son Michael for about 20 years until about 2016 helping him grow his business as well as investing in his daughter Amy and husband Michael Brand with their business ventures. As a family man, he wanted all his children to be successful in their dreams and helped each one of them in every way he could to ensure each of his three children were successful.

While Richard, known as Pop-Pop, loved his children and family very much, it would be his eight grandchildren, and one great grandchild, who gave him his most joy. He is survived by Catherine and husband Michael Conte, Caitlin, Ashley, Chase, and Kennedy Collins, Kayla, Michael and Tyler Brand, and his great grandchild Jack Michael Conte. He loved to teach them how to play guitar and sing songs, read with them, watch them play sports, throw the ball around in the back yard, YouTube music and jam, watching his Mets, and simply just sitting down talking with each one hearing about their days and what is happening in their busy lives.

Visitation will be Monday July 10th from 5-7 p.m. with a private mass at St Thomas Aquin in Ogdensburg on Tuesday July 11th at 11 a.m.